Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Legislature

Special Needs Access

1. What is the Legislature's policy for assisting persons with special needs?

The Minnesota Legislature is committed to complying with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and supporting the goal that individuals with disabilities shall not be excluded from participating in or be denied the benefits of any program, service, or activity offered by the Legislature. The Legislature welcomes comments and suggestions on services that will improve communication between the Legislature and individuals with special needs. Please direct comments to:

Two wheelchairs are available, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society, at the Capitol Information and Tour Center for visitor use in the State Capitol only. Wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact the Minnesota Historical Society with questions: 651-259-3292.

Yes. The accessibility page on the Minnesota State Capitol website from the Minnesota Historical Society contains information such as entrances available for visitors with limited mobility and services available for visitors with hearing or visual impairment.

For more information, call: 651-259-3292
TTY: 651-282-6073
or email: statecapitol@mnhs.org.

The Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota Senate produce and distribute unedited television coverage of all House and Senate floor sessions, select committee hearings, press conferences, and other issue-oriented programming. Programming is broadcast weekdays during the legislative session from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., with extended evening and weekend coverage available for debates on high-profile issues. All broadcast programming is closed-captioned. See the House and Senate Broadcast Television Schedule page for a list of upcoming broadcast events and a channel guide.

All House and Senate television programming is Web cast live over the Internet. The live Web cast service allows viewers to watch additional coverage not provided on the television channels or to watch extended evening coverage. In addition, all television programming is archived and made available on the House and Senate websites. Web cast programming is captioned. See the House audio and video page for live and archived House web cast coverage and see the Senate Media Service page for live and archived Senate web cast coverage.

6. Are there specific services for people who are blind or visually impaired?

Signs. Raised numbers identify legislative offices and rooms in the Minnesota Senate Building and State Office Building. In addition, Braille signs are installed throughout both buildings to assist those who are visually impaired. The elevators in both buildings are equipped with control signs in Braille.

Large print. Some of the printed material handed out in committees may be enlarged on the copying machines used by the Legislature. For assistance, contact:
Legislative Coordinating Commission, 651-296-1121
Room 72 State Office Building

If an individual wishes to listen to the recording of a committee meeting or floor session, listening facilities are located in the Legislative Reference Library, 651-296-8338, Room 645, State Office Building.

Screen Readers. Screen reader software is installed on select public access computers in the Legislative Reference Library, Room 645, State Office Building (JAWS and NVDA) and the Legislative Reference Library, Room 3238, Minnesota Senate Building (NVDA).

Yes. The Access at the Capitol page provides information from the Commission Serving Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.

Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled may contact the Senate and House via their preferred Telecommunications Relay Service.

Minnesota Relay Service

Minnesota Relay Service is a free service that uses a specially trained communications assistant (CA) to facilitate the telephone conversations between a person who has a hearing loss or speech disability and the person with whom they wish to speak. All calls are confidential. To make a Minnesota Relay call dial 7-1-1.

Sign Language Interpreters

In order to provide accessibility for meetings with legislators, legislative committee hearings, and House and Senate floor sessions, the Legislature contracts with Keystone Interpreting Solutions to provide legislative sign language interpreting services. Interpreting services are also available for hearings or meetings with legislators in Greater Minnesota.

Please make your request at least 24 hours before the service is needed. You may also request legislative interpreting services from the committee administrator or committee legislative assistant that is planning the committee meeting you want to attend.

You may also request legislative interpreting services by contacting the Legislative Coordinating Commission at 651-296-9002, at 651-296-1121, or at 651-296-0099.

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART)

For CART services, contact the Legislative Coordinating Commission at 651-296-9002, at 651-296-1121 or at 651-296-0099. Please make your request at least 24 hours before the service is needed.

Sound Reinforcement Systems

The Minnesota Senate has sound reinforcement systems for use in hearings rooms in the Minnesota Senate Building. The systems, for the exclusive use of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, are available for the duration of a particular meeting and must be returned immediately following the meeting. Senate receivers may be signed out during normal business hours from the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, room G-430, Minnesota Senate Building. For meetings lasting beyond normal business hours, receivers are to be returned to the committee staff. Call the Sergeant-at-Arms at 651-296-1119 for further information.

The Minnesota House has sound reinforcement systems in the 10 hearing rooms in the State Office Building and in the House Chamber. The systems, for the exclusive use of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, are available for the duration of a particular meeting and must be returned immediately following the meeting. House receivers may be signed out during normal business hours from the House Sergeants' Office, Room B-17, State Office Building. For meetings lasting beyond normal business hours, receivers are to be returned to the committee staff. Call the House Sergeant's Office at 651-296-4860 for further information.

We continually refine our website in an effort to conform to accessibility standards and provide our online information in an accessible format.

Features

Text Sizing: In most Internet browsers, pressing Ctrl + Plus Sign (+) increases text size, and Ctrl + Minus Sign (-) decreases text size. Pressing the Ctrl key while scrolling up or down with the mouse wheel will also change the text size in most browsers. Alternatively, click the menu at the top of your browser and look for the "zoom" or "text size" option. This will present you with choices for scaling the text to your preferred size.

PDFs: For PDFs that are created within an office of the legislature, alternate formats or accessibly tagged PDFs are offered, when possible. If an accessible format is not immediately possible, the legislature strives to support accessibility on a case-by-case basis. Bills, session laws, statutes, and rules are offered in HTML as an alternate format to PDF.

Assistive Technology for our website: Screen reader software is installed on select public access computers in the Legislative Reference Library, room 645, State Office Building (JAWS and NVDA) and the Legislative Reference Library, room 3238, Minnesota Senate Building (NVDA). For more information about assistive technology, please see the Minnesota Star Program website.

More

Additional accessibility information is available in the FAQ - Special Needs Access, which includes information about wheelchair-accessibility, services for those who are blind or visually impaired, and services for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, among other topics.